ONE of the country's most popular comedians– Russell Howard– will bring his global tour to the North-East next September.

Following the success of Netflix special Recalibrate, Sky One’s hit The Russell Howard Hour and 2017 international record-breaking sell-out tour Round The World, Howard returns to the live stage with his third and largest world tour to date, Respite.

The tour includes dates in five continents, 24 countries, 51 cities and starts at London’s Wembley Arena in autumn 2019.

He will be at the Metro Radio Arena, in Newcastle, on Thursday, September 19, 2019.

Howard will also return to China– where he broke the record for the country's biggest ever stand-up show on his last tour– to play Shanghai and Beijing in 2020.

This Thursday, the funnyman returns to our screens with his take on international news and current affairs with the second series of The Russell Howard Hour on Sky One.

Every episode is available to watch on Howard's YouTube channel which has over 645,000 subscribers and is also broadcast simultaneously in Australia and New Zealand.

With more than 3.4 million Facebook fans around the world, he has more followers than any other British comedian.

Tickets for the Newcastle gig will go on sale at 10am this Thursday (November 8) online, from the booking hotline number 0844-4936666 or in person from 11am at the Metro Radio Arena Box Office.